The Ministry of National Defense is considering the first-ever contacts between the military and China’s People’s Liberation Army, but has set no timetable for any meetings, a senior defense official said yesterday.
Ministry of National Defense spokeswoman Lisa Chi (池玉蘭) said the ministry would start with bilateral contacts between retired and junior military officers and “then move on to high-level meetings between senior officials.”
“No timetable has been set for the military exchange,” Chi said.
A schedule would only come “after the government holds discussions on economic and political issues with China,” Chi said.
TV news reports showed Minister of National Defense Chen Chao-min (陳肇敏) telling local reporters on Tuesday that meetings between senior officials from the two sides would help reduce misunderstandings and the possibility of either side resorting to force.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said earlier this year that he wants to push for discussions with China on economic issues first and then proceed to thorny diplomatic and security issues.
He also said he hoped to sign a formal peace treaty with Beijing, though without specifying what it might contain.
Within a month of his inauguration on May 20, Ma sent a delegation to Beijing to resume bilateral talks after a hiatus of almost 10 years.
The talks facilitated regular weekend charter flights across the Strait were facilitated and made it possible for more Chinese tourists to visit Taiwan.
Next week, Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) will visit Taiwan.
Taiwanese officials have said the talks will focus only on economic issues, including the expansion of weekend charter flights to weekday service.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
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